Retirement Plans in Construction
Retirement plans help attract and retain workers, as they provide workers with financial security in the future and tax advantages. Construction workers are among those with the lowest eligibility and participation in retirement plans through their employers.
This interactive dashboard summarizes retirement plans in construction by state, occupation, pension plan type, and other characteristics such as age, class of worker, race/ethnicity, sex, and union status. The year filter updates the charts and the bold and underlined key findings. The occupation and characteristic charts share a pension plan status filter. The map has its own chart-level filter that defaults on “Participating”.
Following the interactive dashboard, you will find more information on the data source, definitions, chart notes, a downloadable data file, and recommended citation. This interactive data dashboard corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming PDF version of the Construction Chart Book-7th edition, which will be published this summer. Data will be updated annually as available. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected].
About the Data
Data come from the U.S. Census of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Population Survey (CPS) download through IPUMS and The U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Form 5500.
Sarah Flood, Miriam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles, J. Robert Warren, and Michael Westberry. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, 2011-2023 Current Population Survey: Version 9.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2022. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V9.0.
- The data was weighted using the final basic weight and not composite weight for replicating U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); thus, estimates presented are not directly comparable to estimates published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S. Department of Labor, 2011-2021 Employee Benefits Security Administration, Form 5500, Private Pension Plan https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/researchers/statistics/retirement-bulletins/private-pension-plan.
Definitions and Chart Notes
Definitions
- Class of Worker –
- Self-employed, incorporated – Individuals who work for their own legal corporation.
- Self-employed, not incorporated – Individuals who work for themselves apart from an established corporation.
- Wage-and-salary– Individuals who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips or payment in kind from an employer in private (private wage-and-salary) or public (public wage-and-salary) sectors. Synonymous with “payroll”.
- Pension plan – an employee benefit plan maintained by an employer, employee organization, or both that provides retirement income.
- Single-employer plans – maintained by one employer.
- Multiemployer plans – collectively bargained and maintained by more than one employer, usually within the same or related industries. Typically used by unionized construction trades.
- Multiple employer plans – maintained by two or more unrelated employers. It is typically an alternative for small employers looking for a cost effective retirement benefit.
- Defined benefit plan – Benefits based on a percentage of earnings during a specified number of years.
- Defined contribution plan – Benefits based on employer and employee contributions, plus or minus investment gains or losses.
- Occupation– Reported main occupation worked the week before the survey according to the 2018 Census Classification Scheme. Email [email protected] to request codes.
- Union Status – indicates for the current job if the respondents were a member of a labor union or an employee association similar to a union.
- Non-union Member – respondent was not a member.
- Union Member – respondent was a member
- Participation status – indicates whether the union or employer for respondent’s longest job during the previous year had a pension or other retirement plan. It excludes Social Security retirement support.
- Wage-and-salary – Individuals who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips or payment in kind from their employer.
Chart Notes
- Data for wage-and-salary workers.
- Tooltip indicates when data should be interpreted with caution. Data excluded if n<15.
- Charts show totals for single years and an average for all years.
- Retirement saving plans by pension plan type data not available from 2023-2024.
Recommended Citation and Data File
Recommended Citation
CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training. [2025]. Retirement Plans in Construction [dashboard].
Data File
The Data File includes the underlying retirement and pension plan data. If interested in other data year combinations, please email [email protected].